Attenuation control network



3- SQXCgE 4;. a W

' GENERATOR" I m I R. B. DOME v ATTENUATION CONTROL NETWORK April 13, 1948.

FiledAug, 9, 1945 Fi .l. a,

3 sauA'R: M WAVE GENERATOR- Inventor: Robert B. Dome,

in JV QJMLQ y His Attorney.

Patented Apr. 13, 1948 Robert B21Home Bnidgepony-Conm, assignonto; enera l Electric/Company; a corporation, of'

new r m. 7

anama-magmas, 1943, Serial No. 497,918

admins; (01. 178-44) My invention relates tmattemiatiom' control networks: for; use inihigzh fnequenny circuitsrand it: has fort" one" of its obiectsito pnovrider'certaiir improvements in t SuUhf networks;- im' which: the attenhatiormnay beivari'edsdv ntremiywide" range im response torvariatifinr ofiai desinedi con..- trolivoltagen short w'avearadini systems-such? as. are:- comm-oniy employed: for deter'rxrizn'ingthe; direca tion of remote obj'eotsz'hfromiwhicfnradib waives areireflected; for exanilple, commomatwmor more receiving antennae: are empioyem. These? anti-- tennae may be ositionedf meant-w theaothen as when altitude is to be determined, onthewmay be differently oriented" azimuth' ci elevation, and reception may be hadialt mateiyftherencm' therebytodetermine thedirectibnfiofztne 'remete object from" which* waves are "received? are emp'Ioy'ed between; eacnf antenna; andztne common receiver to alternate the reception be: tween 'the twdantenn'e'ei An object or" my invention? provide int proved means for eflfe(Sting sirh alternation of the reception frorn the two antenn Another object of iiiy" invefitiiin tie provide an" improved attenuatibn netwdr wmen m'ay: be employed in the circiiits le'afiih" siieh antennae the attenuatiomot which Ina readily be vat ied between extremely wide liiri'its underwent/rec of a suitable connorvcirage. i

A further object of my invention- E to provide improved meansinclu'diiig networks e a-r ranged that reception froifr the; antehiia is not impaired by e'jderatidn of the opposite network to interrupt reception from the-otherantenna The novel features Which-I 15 ieve t'o he char acteristic ofniy" invention ares otth witfiparticularity in' the appended cIaLiiiis: lvfi irivnti'ori itself; howev'ei as to it "srgenizancmaad method of"o1ierati6n2 asset ee with olfje'cts and advantages-1 eav ness be under: stood by ref'ei'e re the renew hg desetiiation taken incbnfie'c with the? drawing in which Fig: 1 represents? an embodie merit of iiiventiohi andl i'g i w r-epre sentsi a modification 'therebfi v it Referring to F-ig. 1 ofthe drawing, Ii-haveirep; resented at 'la radiating antenna; adaptedito transmit short redid waves in' neg'hhirlynfcutrihrg pulses which may traverse remote: s ace and: be reflected from a remote object suen focexamnle; as i an airplane. This: radiated: were indicated at 2 and the-reflected WeNe at: 3.: Tinsirefiected wave maybe received; ant-two difim entlst oniented antennae 4 and 5 both of which; are: connected throughrespective channels: B'i'and:hto'anommon receiver, which may be connected to the coal-- ductors 8.

Each of the channeiszihand 1 includes a network comprising the elements C, L, R2, D, C2 and L2 arranged to attenuate currents received onthe respective antenna; during reception from the opposite antenna. Theelements C and L comprise respectively a capacitance and inductance corinected in' parallel andresonant at the frequency"0f*w'aves-to-be"received; this combination beihgfinserieswith one side ofeaclrofthe-chanrials and- 1. The rn-id-"poiifzt of the inductance L is connected through a"variab1e resistance R2, a diode D and a capacitance C2 to the opposite sid'e of ch'ann'ef which may-be grounded; the

diode D and" capaic'ity- (if? being shunted byan inductanceLzz-j G'apacit'y @rmaybe oflargevalue suchythafiit has substantially Zeroiinpedlance at thefrequency to lie" transmitted; and the induct-- ance liz resonates' with-the" capacity of the diode at the frequency to. be transmitted throughthe channel" thefdiodefisn non conducting.

At' l1):isrrepr'esenteda' source of squa-re wave voltage"cor'm'ect'e'd to impress a square wave upon tiiereathsde of each of" the; two diodes- 13,-, these voltages, being of opposite polarity;- that is; the cathode" of the diode, D1 in channel' 5 is rendered po'sitive' the cathode" of" the diode D' inchaririel' I "is rendered negativeboth with respect to, ground. In this way each diode is, rendered conductive when" th'eother diode'isnon-conductivei, oscillations. from the antennae are" suppliedtoith'ese network-s byme'ansoftransformers rfiandieu rrents supp1ied'through1thenetwork are triarisiiiititedi through a' second" transformer; l2 to thefch'arinel 8 anldfthere'ceiver; connected thereto,

Thelnetwo'rkj cbiripri'sing? the parallel combination ofth'e'in'diictance'l and capacity Cwith the branch circuit comprising the elements Re, In, D and C2, the resistancecf which branch may be designated R1, prodiicest'atteriuation in the respective channel; 52,1, dependent: upon the, value of the resistance R1 of this shunt branch. This attenuation may readil y be varied over an extremely wide range by variation of the resistance R1: of thisbranch, asbyunendering diode D conductineon nonrconductingi i The-elemental, and G2resonate;atthe-inequency to? be: transmitted through the channeL andsimilarlythe: inductance La resonates at. the same tnequencywith, the capacity inshunt with includingthe; capacity on diode- 13; when: non-conducting, in serieswitkr' the caQaGityiGa, which may bervery largeab y v i a It can readily be shown that infinite attenua tion exists in the channel between transformers II and I2 when the following relation applies:

where R1 is the resistance between the midpoint of inductance L and ground and 1 2 4L0 Where f is the frequency to be transmitted and R is the resistance of the coil L.

As is well known the resistance between the terminals of a shunt tuned circuit, such as L and C, is expressed by the relation:

where R0 is the impedance of the tuned circuit due to coil resistance. From these relations it follows that Thus, to produce infinite attenuation between transformers l I and I2 the resistance R1 between the midpoint of coil L and ground when the diode is conducting should be about one-quarter of the shunt impedance of the tuned circuit LC at resonance.

Diode D when conducting may have a resistance of from 150 to 300 ohms dependent upon the particular diode employed and the variable resistance R2 may have a maximum value of, for example, 500 ohms. By variation of resistance R2 the total resistance R1 between the midpoint of inductance L and ground may be adjusted to the required value. For example, if the-resistance R0 of the tuned circuit L0 be 2000 ohms, as may readily be the case when inductance L is a. coil Wound of small sized wire or of high resistance wire, then the resistance R1 may be adjusted to 500 ohms by variation of the resistance R2. Thus, infinite attenuation may be had between the two transformers l land I2 when the diode D isconducting.

When diode D is non-conducting, as during the portion of the square wave from generator I0 when the cathode of the diode is positive with respect to the anode, then the resistance R1 is the sum of the resistance R2 and the shunt resistance R3 of the tuned circuit comprising the inductance L2 and the capacity of the diode in series with the condenser C2. This resistance R3 has the value a 2 2 RG zQ 4 where R4 is the resistance of coil L2 and For example, if the frequency to be transmitted through the channel be 200 megacycles, wLg may be 200 ohms and Q may be 100 giving R3 a value of 20,000 ohms, which is much greater than'the 500 ohm value when the diode is conducting.

Thus, when the diode is non conducting, efficient transfer of energy takes place between the transformers II and I2. The loss due to the circuit LC, the resistance of which has been referred to as 2000 ohms, may be only ten percent where the line between antenna 4 and transformer II and that between transformer l2 and the circuit 8 are 20,000 ohm lines and the transformers are designed to match these 20,000 ohm lines to the impedance of the network LC.

r The lines extending from transformers I! to circuit 8 should each have alength equal to a quarter of a wave length of the wave to'be transmitted. In this way each channel 6 and 1 is prevented from producing a low impedance across the opposite channel when its respective diode is conducting. That is, the low impedance of the network including the diode, when the diode is conducting, is stepped up or transformed to a high value across the circuit 8 by the action of the intermediate line having a length equal to a quarter of the wave length of the waveto be transmitted.

Fig. 2 shows a modification of my invention in which the transformers II and ll of Fig. 1 are replaced byadditional quarter wave length sections oftransmission line ll, 12'. vThe linel'3 extending from the. antenna 4 is connected between the end of the line I I and a tap I4 thereon to effect the desired impedance and voltage transformation. Similarly the line I5 extending from the circuit 8 is connected between the end of the quarter wave section [2' and a point along the length thereof, as indicated at IE, to eflect desired impedance and voltage transformation. Of course, these points are selected to secure de sired impedance matching when the diode is nonconducting.

While I have shown particular embodiments of my invention, it will, of course, be understood that I do not wish to be limited thereto since different modifications may be made both in the circuit arrangement and in the instrumentalities employed, and I contemplate by the appended claims to cover any such modifications as fall withi the true spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim as newand desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is: 7

1. In combination, a high frequency transmission channel, a parallel combination of inductance and capacity connected in series with said channel and resonant at the frequency of waves to be transmitted therethrough, a source of variable voltage, means to interrupt transmission of waves of said frequency through said' channel in accord with said voltage, said means comprising an impedance connected between the midpoint of said inductance and the opposite side of said circuit, and means to vary said impedance in accord with said voltage. at

2., In combination, a high frequency transmission channel, a parallel combination of inductance and capacity connected in series withone side of said channel and resonant at the frequency of waves to be transmitted-therethrough, a unilateral conducting device connected between the midpoint of said inductance and the opposite side of said channel and having resistance in the-conducting direction of such value as to produce high attenuation through said combination in said channel, a source of variable control voltage, and means to bias said'unilateral conducting device to be non-conducting in accord with said control voltage thereby to reduce said attenuation. 1 j r 3. In combination, a high frequency transmission channel, a parallel combination of inductance and capacity connected in series with one side of said channel and resonant at the frequency of Waves to be transmitted therethrough, a diode connected between the midpoint of said inductance and the opposite side of said channel, means to supply control voltage to said diode to render it conducting or non-conducting dependent upon the polarity of said voltage, and an inductance in shunt with said diode resonant with the capacitance of said diode at said frequency when said diode is non-conducting whereby high attenuation is produced in said channel at said frequency when said diode is conducting and low attenuation is produced when said diode is non-conducting.

4. In combination, a pair of signal channels, means to render said channels alternately operative, said means comprising a parallel combination of inductance and capacity connected in series with one side of each channel, a pair of diodes, one for each channel, each diode being connected between the midpoint of said inductance in the respective channel and the opposite side of said channel. and means to supply similar square Waves to said diodes in opposite phase thereby to render either diode conducting when the opposite diode isnon-conducting, the impedance of each diode when conducting being small relative to the shunt impedance of the respective parallel combination of inductance and capacity.

ROBERT B. DOME.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Tellegen Sept. 21, 1937 Number 

